During the production of hydrocarbonaceous fluids from offshore undersea formations, salt water is used as the flooding medium. When the salt water comes into contact with connate water in the formation, chemical compounds in both waters react together to form scale which, among other things, causes plugging of filters and coalescers used in removing oil particles from the water mixture. Presently, costly inhibitors are used to help alleviate scale forming in production equipment. However, scale forming problems continue to exist which often cause production to cease until corrective measures can be undertaken.
Therefore, what is needed is a scale-reduction method which will reduce the need for costly inhibitors and reduce production down time.